Grindstone Nature Area History

Located in Sec. 19 Twp. 48 N, R 12 W, is the Grindstone
Natural area, a 200-acre Columbia city park. It is
in the southeast part of town, where the Grindstone
Creek winds its way across the middle of the park and
flows into Hinkson Creek. The park could be described
as a basin surrounded by hills and bluffs, with roads
adjacent or close to it on three sides. The roads are
as follows: near the north side is Stadium Boulevard,
or 740; on the west is Rock Quarry Road; and Business
63 South is on the east side. The park entrance and
parking lot is off Business 63 South at the Grindstone
Creek crossing.

The topography of the park was shaped by the long,
slow erosion processes of two streams, Grindstone
and Hinkson Creeks, as they meandered and formed
their valleys. The bluffs and other rock outcrops
are sedimentary, being limestone with chert pockets.
These formations were laid down in shallow seas 250
to 300 million years ago.

Animals now extinct once roamed these lands, erosion
from a continental ice age had its impact, and the
first humans that lived here were Indians. A large
portion of the present Grindstone Natural Area is
in the National Registry of Archeological Sites,
and as such is subject to a strict set of federal
regulations. The countryside abounded with wild turkey,
deer, grouse, and bear. Plenty of water was available
from springs and streams; the bottom lands were fertile,
but settlement by white people did not occur until
after 1818, when the Indian scares of the War of
1812 were over.

People coming into mid Missouri followed a trail
(Boone's Lick Trail) that was poor at best, having
deep holes, thick wood tangles, and high prairie
grass that made progress slow. Boone's Lick Trail
got its name from the Boone Brothers, Nathan and
Daniel M., sons of the famous pioneer, Daniel Boone.
These sons discovered a salt spring north of present-day
Boonville in 1806, and the route they took from St.
Charles followed a ridge westward passing about seven
miles north of Fulton, north of Columbia and continued
to Franklin, on the Missouri river. The availability
of salt, a precious commodity in pioneer days, added
to the lure of his choice country.

In 1815, only five hundred people lived in "Howard
County," a large area in central Missouri that later
became thirty nine counties. Once the Indian scares
were past, immigration increased rapidly. Settlers
came on foot, on horseback, and in carts and covered
wagons to get some of this new land, and a U.S. Land
Office was opened in Franklin.

Among those making the journey from Madison County,
Kentucky in 1818 was one David Gordon, the great
grandfather of Marshall Gordon, whose land became
the park.

David Gordon (1870-1949), a native of North Carolina,
emigrated to Kentucky in an early day, and by shrewd
management and hard work laid the foundation for
a considerable fortune. Jane Boyle, sister of the
Chief Justice of Kentucky, eloped with David Gordon
when only fifteen years old. They had a family of
thirteen children. David came west from Madison County,
Kentucky and developed a homestead in what was then
Howard County in the Missouri Territory in 1818.
He later added thousands of acres to his holdings
in Missouri. He aided in establishing the town site
of Columbia and built a cabin in 1818 on East Broadway.
In 1823, slave labor was used to burn brick, fell
trees, saw lumber, and complete the mansion you can
see at 2001 East Broadway, where it still stands
as the Stephen's College Country Club, by Stephen's
Lake. In 1825, the David Gordon family made the trip
of at least six hundred miles to this home, bringing
much of the household goods, livestock, and many
slaves. This home became the scene of many civic
events for generations. These included pioneer militia
musters, which sometimes lasted three days. A hundred
years later, the homes tradition of hospitality still
continued as the city's place to celebrate the Fourth
of July.

1821 was the year Boone County's petition to become
a county was granted. Missouri was admitted into
the Union, and the site for Columbia was platted
and surveyed. It consisted of fifteen to twenty mud
daubed huts huddled together in a clearing on Flat
Branch, surrounded by dense wilderness.

In 1822, Boone's Lick Trail was relocated to go
down Broadway, bringing stage coach service to Columbia.
Probably, the route of this trail was changed a few
miles north or south several times before becoming
fixed through Boone County and Callaway County in
1825, when Fulton was established and the road was
diverted through it. This main East West vehicular
route remained fixed for about 100 years (present
day Route WW). In 1911, the National Old Trails Road
was established across the USA, acknowledging the
Boonslick Road as the link between the Cumberland
Pike and the Santa Fe Trail. Construction of US Highway
40 in 1925 brought changes.

In trying to trace the history of the land use
of Grindstone Natural Area, it was found that the
north part of the park had been in the ownership
of the Gordon family from pioneer days until 1959,
when it was sold to a real estate company by Frederick
Gordon, the only heir of Marshall Gordon.

Marshall Gordon was the only heir of Boyle Gordon
and Ann Gentry Gordon. Ann Gentry was the daughter
of Ann Hawkins Gentry and Colonel Richard Gentry.
Boyle Gordon, a lawyer, was the eldest son of John
Boyle Gordon, who was also a lawyer and the son of
David Gordon. Marshall Gordon was born January 6,
1869, on the farm where he spent his entire life.
The house still stands at 1133 Ashland Gravel Road.
The original "double-cabin," or two-room log cabin,
was incorporated into the large room which was built
over and around it many years ago. Marshall attended
agricultural school at the University of Missouri
for three years and devoted his entire attention
to the cultivation of his land for dairy purposes.
He increased his father's land holdings to three
hundred acres and had sixty Holstein cows. He and
his dairyman neighbor, Austin H. Shepard, formed
the White Eagle Dairy, which produced quality milk
for Columbia. Mr. Shepard's farm was on the east
side of Hinkson Creek and was named Eagle Park. It
is recorded that the remains of the old Black Mill,
one of the first water mills ever erected in Boone
County, was on Mr. Gordon's land. Dating back to
1839, it was situated on Hinkson Creek. Marshall
had a fine collection of Indian pottery, arrowheads,
and stone axes.

The 1917 Boone County Atlas, in the Missouri Historical
Library, shows Marshall Gordon owning all of the
Grindstone Natural Area. According to the 1875 Atlas
of Boone County, the southern part of the park was
owned by R. McKaskie. There is some confusion as
to the spelling of his name, since the next Boone
County Atlas, published in 1898, records the same
acres as belonging to R. McCaskey heirs. Some of
the 154 acres of his farm were in the southeast quarter
of Sec. 19, Tws. 48N, R 12 W; another portion is
the east half of the southwest quarter of Sec. 19,
Tws. 48N, R 12 W.

The 1875 Atlas also shows the public road to Ashland
crossing Grindstone Creek approximately where the
Business 63 South bridge is now, and the old road
climbed the long ridge as it does now. Mr. McKaskie's
roadway to his home started at the level of the park's
parking lot and hugged a lower position on this hillside.
Rocks were pried or quarried from the hillside to
provide a narrow, flat roadbed. These stones were
stacked on the lower side to support the road. Where
the Grindstone Creek is turned by the hill, the steep
slope is held in place by the largest stones. Positioning
them must have been an arduous task, but effectively
done to have lasted over one hundred years. Creek
erosion is now undercutting this support, and some
of the rocks have tumbled. Evidence of a small bridge
spanning the tributary is the unmortared stone supports
on both sides of it. The road then passed the spring
house and proceeded to the level area where the home
stood among the black locust trees. Below the knoll
where McKaskie had his home is a brick-walled spring
(no longer usable). Water from this spring was piped
into the spring house. The stone foundation of this
two-compartment building is all that remains. Cold
spring water offered the pioneer his best means of
keeping foods fresh, especially milk.

The most obvious man-made structure in the park
is the large, round, concrete tower. In it, silage
was stored for cow feed. To make silage, the farmer
waited until the corn had attained its full height
and the ears had soft kernels; the entire plant was
then harvested and hauled to the silage cutter, parked
by the silo. The cutter finely chopped the corn plants
and blew the pieces up a pipe, over the top of the
silo. Removable panels covered the line of square
openings in the silo as the silage filled it, and
they were later removed one at a time, so the fermented
corn shreds could be pitched out. A metal, semicircular
tube formed a chute in front of the openings. A person
climbed up inside the tube to the level of the silage,
crawled in, and pitched out the feed to be distributed
to the cows that stood on either side of the "concrete
sidewalk," which is still visible among the trees
on the south side of the silo. The building that
covered the feeding area is now gone.

Corn and other farm crops were produced on the
bottom fields surrounding Lost Hill for many years.
These farm operations ceased when the land became
a park. In order to maintain the beautiful open vistas
which characterized this natural lowland basin, a
decision was made by Parks and Recreation and the
Steering Committee to try to convert it to native
prairie. With advice from the Missouri Department
of Conservation and the loan of their specialized
planter, a mixture of five native species of prairie
grasses were sown in the Spring of 1976. In March
of 1977, pockets of prairie flower seeds were planted
by the committee members.

The two hundred acres of park land were purchased
by Columbia in 1975 from the Grindstone Valley Development
Corporation for $425,000.00, with fifty percent being
from matching federal funds. The acreage is part
of a greenbelt concept recommended by the Parks and
Recreation Master Plan.